The force which had been assembled to seize them—with, he could not help but believe, the aim of securing the dragons as prisoners and perhaps for breeding, as well as delaying any report back to Europe—had come on them even as the sun rose. The few minutes of warning which Temeraire and Iskierka had brought proved, just barely, enough; they went aloft pursued by the first roars of challenge, and flung themselves into a mist-shrouded gorge, flying desperately east into the mountain fastness.
The day had worn away; night brought no relief, for a handsome half-full moon shone on the ice-sheathed mountain-slopes, and there were dragons among the pursuit who seemed able to see them in the dark. But at last Temeraire, flying in the lead, had broken out onto the eastern side of the Andes, and they fled down the slopes into the seeming endless jungle which rose impenetrable and green at their base.
Here they had found enough concealment for a few breaths, a little sleep; a few swallows of water might be cupped from the steady rivulets which trickled down the smooth bark of the trees. Already a light misting rain had fallen twice, in the half-day which they had spent in hiding. But they could not hide for very long with three such beasts among them; Laurence watched the sun creep over the sky, through the dappling leaves, and hoped only that their shelter would serve them until the night.
Hammond, shaky and green from the speed and unsteadiness of their flight, was folding together with trembling hands a few of the coca leaves, which he had stuffed into his pocket as they fled: he put the leaves into his mouth to chew, as they could not boil water for tea. “It is an outrage—a betrayal of all common principles regarding the sanctity of ambassadors—” he was saying, a variation on a theme which he had not ceased to develop since their pell-mell departure.
“If they take their notion of principles from the example which the Spanish made them, there is not much to wonder at,” Laurence said, controlling irritation; he would have been glad of a cup of tea himself, and more grateful yet for one of strong black coffee; instead he cupped water in one of the broad, dinner-plate-sized leaves which hung vinelike off the tree, and poured off the trickle into his mouth.
“We must rather consider our course of escape, and our direction,” he said, and bent to sketch out the shape of the continent roughly in the dirt.
“To Rio, of course?” Hammond said, as though it were merely a matter of choosing their destination. “Now there can be nothing worth delaying for; we ought make all speed possible.”
“Well, we can’t: it is asking for disaster to go haring off through the jungle with no water to speak of,” Granby said. “Laurence, I don’t think we have much choice in the matter: this tree-bark dribble will do for us, but not for the dragons. There might be a hundred streams flowing under the leaves, but they won’t do us any good if we can’t see them from the air. At least if we hold by the mountains, we are pretty sure of seeing some run-off every day.”
“And more likely to be seen in turn,” Laurence said, “by our pursuit. But I do take your point: if we should keep to the trees by day, and put our heads north by night, towards Venezuela—”
“No, no,” Hammond cried. “Gentlemen, we must go to Rio. You have not considered, perhaps, the increased urgency of our mission. With the Sapa Inca having decided to throw her lot in with Napoleon, Brazil is now beset on all sides. You must recall the Prince Regent of Portugal is there, and all the royal family. They must be warned—warned, perhaps rescued; they do not as yet know anything of their danger. I must insist upon it, in my authority as ambassador: I hope you will agree I do not exceed it, in such a cause.”
“If he can’t marry us off, he will murder us, I suppose,” Granby said to Laurence under his breath. “Had we better make for Venezuela, and then circle back to Rio along the coast?”
“We should lose six thousand miles on such a journey,” Laurence said, “and no guaranty of supply along the way, in any case.”
They bent their heads over the dirt, trying without much hope to plot a course more direct across the jungle: they scarcely knew where they were, so even to begin was difficult, and at Granby’s insistence had to allot full half each day’s flying for finding water. “And that I would call ambitious,” he said. “In any case, we mustn’t go so far that we could not fly back to some decent water within a day.”
“Well, it will have to do,” Laurence said finally, when they had at last agreed, and they made their uncomfortable damp beds on the ground to take a little more rest before nightfall; but twilight had only just begun to descend when Demane was shaking Laurence awake.
“The monkeys have gone quiet,” he said softly. Laurence sat up listening, but the waterfall covered any sound of wings. They sat together a moment, squinting upwards: then a groan of rustling branches, and a great orange-feathered dragon’s head thrust down and whispered in Quechua, “Hammond? Are you there?”
“What?” Hammond said, staring up, and Churki landed among them, ruffling up her plumage to cast out the leaves and twigs which had been caught betwixt the feathers.